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Crews were cleaning up Thursday, but there is still more work to do after the storm downed power lines and sparked wildfires. colorado On the Front Range and the Great Plains.
Wind gusts of up to 100 mph (160 kph) were reported late Wednesday after Xcel Energy protectively cut power to much of its eastern Colorado service areas. The goal was to prevent downed lines from starting fires – and indeed power lines were destroyed in many areas.
By Thursday afternoon, power had been restored to about 60% of the approximately 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) of power lines the utility had de-energized. Approximately 37,000 Excel customers on and inside the Front Range Rocky Mountains Were still powerless.
However, another round of power outages was expected on Friday, although even stronger winds are forecast in the longer term.
The head of Xcel Energy-Colorado cautioned at a press conference that while crews have already worked to restore power to affected customers, even longer outages are likely Friday.
Robert Kenny, president of the utility, said, “Power will not come back on once the wind event ends because we will have to inspect the lines.”
in the center denverPower was out overnight, furniture was blown off apartment balconies, at least one apartment window was blown out and the ground was strewn with broken branches on Thursday.
Winds Wednesday afternoon and Thursday fanned a wildfire of still-unknown cause in eastern Colorado, burning at least 14,000 acres (5,700 hectares) in Yuma County, local emergency management officials said in a Facebook post.
A grass fire south of Cheyenne, Wyoming forced the evacuation of a neighborhood for several hours Wednesday evening. However, no structures burned.
Meanwhile, high wind and red flag fire warnings remained in effect for much of Kansas Thursday. The Kansas Department of Transportation said in a news release that blowing dust reduced visibility so much that a portion of Interstate 70 near the state’s western line with Colorado was closed.
The release urged motorists to consider delaying non-essential travel.
In Pacific NorthwestHeavy rain continued with snowfall in the mountains. rivers in Washington Recent floods inundated communities, damaged roads and led to the rescue of more than 600 people.
Parts of southern Oregon and northern California were expected to get several inches (centimeters) of rain and strong winds Friday and into the weekend.
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Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Jean Johnson in Seattle and David Zalubowski in Denver contributed.